This invention relates in general to lighting systems for photography and more particularly to a special front lighting system for use in situations involving limited space availability.
In high quality commercial and industrial photography, good lighting is essential to accurate photographer reproduction. The camera system that is often used includes a large camera mounted on an overhead track to provide camera movement toward and away from a subject holder located at one end of the track. The subject is held on the front face of the subject holder and is usually lighted both from the front and from behind. The front lighting is normally provided by a pair of lights located in front of the subject holder and on opposite sides of the room.
Although this type of front lighting system is entirely satisfactory for the most part, it requires a wide room because the two front lights are located well to the sides of the subject holder and are oriented to cover its entire front face. When photography operations must be carried out in a relatively small or narrow room, the conventional front lighting system is not suitable because of its space requirements. At present, there are no known front lighting systems available for use in high quality photography to effectively light wide subject holders in narrow rooms. It is the primary goal of the present invention to provide a front lighting system which is not subject to the space limitations associated with the systems that have been proposed in the past.
More specifically, it is an object of the invention to provide a front lighting system which can be installed in a narrow room and yet functions to light a subject holder as effectively as conventional front lighting systems requiring more space. In accordance with the invention, special panelized stands include mirrors which are strategically placed and oriented to reflect light toward the subject holder with the same effect and intensity as light sources placed farther apart in wider rooms. The mirrors permit the light sources to be situated well within the interior of the room, thereby reducing the space requirements in comparison with conventional front lighting systems.
Another object of the invention is to provide a front lighting system which applies light to the subject holder uniformly across its front face. The lights and mirrors are arranged symmetrically about the optical axis of the camera in a configuration which gives the same amount of effective light to all parts of the subject holder face. Accordingly, there are no bright spots or dim spots on the face of the subject holder.
A further object of the invention is to provide, in a front lighting system of the character described, light containment shields which confine the light to only the face of the subject holder which is the only area that requires light for purposes of the photography operation. At the same time, the shields prevent the remainder of the room from being flooded with light.
An additional object of the invention is to provide a front lighting system of the character described which is suitable for use in rooms of various sizes.
A still further object of the invention is to provide, in a front lighting system of the character described, a stand structure which includes the light fixtures, mirror and shield in a single unit. It is another important feature of the invention that the stand arrangement permits variation in the orientation of the mirrors and shields to increase its versatility and accommodate a wide variety of photographic configurations.
Other and further objects of the invention, together with the features of novelty appurtenant thereto, will appear in the course of the following description.